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Excerpts from Smokin' over Clinton appointment

MSNBC at http://www.msnbc.com/news/345171.asp?cp1=1#BODY [Downloaded 01/04/00]

Some health industry big wigs are fuming because Bill Clinton's newest appointment to the National Bioethics Advisory Commission has close ties to the tobacco industry.

When Clinton recently named William Oldaker to the powerful commission, aides gave a detailed resume of Oldaker; what they failed to mention was that Oldaker was a powerful lobbyist for Philip Morris. Oldaker was among the highest-paid lobbyists in the country, and was considered instrumental in helping defeat the Arizona Sen. John McCain's tobacco bill in 1998. The bill, which would have taxed tobacco companies and channeled the money into programs aimed at undoing the damages of smoking, was widely expected to pass before big tobacco companies spent more than $40 million on a sophisticated advertising and lobbying effort.

"Putting Oldaker on a commission having to do with issues of bioethics and health is like putting Larry Flynt on a morals board," steamed one angry source. "Clinton is so blatantly pandering to the tobacco companies and places where the big money is."